Arrivals - There Goes The Neighborhood

     Before the Americas was "discovered" by the Europeans, there were already millions of Natives thriving with their own unique cultures and traditions. But, the explorers did not care about their culture and thought of the people as barbarians and savages for living the way they did. They didn't even think of them as their own people. They referred to the Natives as Indians because they thought they were in the Indies, even though the people looked different and had completely different cultures. The arrival of the Europeans changed the lives of the Natives forever.
     The Europeans did not see the Natives as equals to themselves. They saw themselves as more civilized and more human than the Natives, because they were more technically advanced. They saw them as opportunities to spread their religion and a source of wealth. They invaded their land and forced them to change their way of life to be more like the Europeans. When the Natives did disagreed with the invaders or refused to change their religion and culture, they were forced out of their homes. The Europeans thought so little of the Natives that Columbus kidnapped 6 Natives to bring back to Spain to please the king and queen.
     They did not just stop there. They created plantations in the Americas to grow cash crops to increase their wealth. On these plantations, they forced the Natives to do hard physical labor. Diseases brought over by the European combined with the difficult work ravaged the population of the Natives. Wars between the two cultures and disease killed millions of Natives. Entire tribes went extinct, wiping away their culture and traditions. The Native way of life was drastically changed by the Europeans, and might not ever return to the way it was before.